www.maderatribune.comServing the Heart of California since 1892http://www.maderatribune.com/node/251/atom.xml2015-03-31T21:30:36+00:00http://www.maderatribune.com/columns/pipeline-rock-2012-vote2012-01-08T00:41:28+00:002012-01-08T00:41:28+00:00Pipeline to rock the 2012 votewebmaster

The presidential elections have begun in earnest with the Iowa caucus held Tuesday. President Obama garnered 98 percent of the Democratic votes and Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum each garnered 25 percent of the Republican votes with just eight votes separating them.

The Iowa caucuses sound like an interesting way to select candidates. According to our friends at Wikipedia, the caucuses are defined as a “gathering of neighbors.”

How great would it be if we could actually elect our president at a tailgate party? Would this sort of environment reduce the apathy typically seen among those eligible to vote and get more people involved in the process? The people involved in the Occupy movements taking place around the globe might embrace this notion.

They obviously enjoy gathering, although I don’t think they are too motivated to follow the rules against trespassing, loitering and vagrancy. How many of these people, if they had jobs, would have time to camp out at protests? Many of the signs the Occupy protesters carry claim they represent 99 percent of the population. They are wrong, but freedom of expression allows them to make their assertions anyway. Is this a great country or what? ...